PIAA FOOTBALL: Dunmore has overcome key injuries to reach state title game

He's been coaching football long enough to know that the company line had to be followed.

Be patient. Injuries are part of the game. Next man up. We'll be fine.

But in Jack Henzes' moments of reflection, the Dunmore coach admits there were some times he wondered if the Bucks would be able to overcome all the injuries to their skill players.

Running back Daiqwon Buckley injured a knee on opening night and missed the next four weeks.

Backfield mate Austin Seamon suffered a high ankle sprain two weeks later and was unavailable on offense until Week 6.

Then quarterback John Rinaldi suffered a hip injury against Honesdale, one that at first was thought might cost him the rest of his senior season.

"You can't show your emotions to the kids because as soon as you do that they lose confidence," Henzes said. "You go home, you kind of think, what are we going to do next to make some adjustments?"

With every injury, starting with a shoulder injury to tight end Josh Zilla the first week of practice, Henzes tried to direct the focus of the team to the players who were able to practice.

"We told our kids to be patient and let's try to do the things we can to get better every day," Henzes said.

Obviously, it's worked. Henzes kept his team on track, and now, with the Bucks heading to Friday's 1 p.m. state Class A championship game, it's that adversity that has helped make his team stronger as they prepare to face a vaunted Clairton team that has won 62 straight games.

"Our offensive line was intact fairly well, the young running backs did an excellent job for us, and then when we got our running backs back, the line just felt we were at full tilt," Henzes said. "There are things we want to get done that we thought should get done."

Buckley was injured in the opener against North Pocono, but didn't know the extent until the following day.

"I was limping a little bit, but I woke up the next morning and I couldn't walk on it at all," Buckley said. "That's when I knew it was something pretty bad happened."

Arthroscopic surgery would get him back in a month. Buckley agreed.

"I was a little bit shocked, but I knew I had to do what was best for myself and my team, so I went and got the operation," Buckley said. "I was able to come back pretty quick."

Not fast enough for the showdown with Old Forge in Week 4, a 21-0 loss Seamon also watched with Buckley from the sidelines.

"We knew we'd see them again," Seamon said. "It feels like the world's going to end. But you just have to go to treatment every day and come back as fast as you can.

"When injuries come along, they are tough to face. You just have to hope you can overcome it."

The understudies were solid replacements, if not gamebreakers, and Dunmore got back on track.

"Our coaches have done an excellent job working with our people, getting the young kids ready. And we do that in practice," Henzes said. "We get them seven or eight reps in practice and we've been fortunate, we get a little bit ahead in the game and they've been in the game playing so they've got some good experience.

"Fortunate on the offensive line that most of our kids have been intact, from center right down the line. That makes a big difference. And some of the young men who have come in there as replacements have done an excellent job for us."

A forfeit against Holy Cross in Week 5 gave both starting backs an extra week to recuperate.

"It was a good thing," Buckley said. "It gave me an extra week to make sure I was ready. Yeah, that was pretty big."

Then came Honesdale and another setback, with Rinaldi suffering a scary hip injury.

"Especially right when it happened," Rinaldi said. "I couldn't really even walk when it happened. We were thinking we had the injury bug pretty bad. But after a few weeks after we started getting healthy and playing all together.

"We'd only lost one game throughout that stretch without Austin and Daiqwon. They are a big part of our team, and that showed how good we are, and how much better we are with them."

The injury also gave backup Brandon Kujawski time to settle in at quarterback.

"I made the change in the Old Forge game because we had some people hurt and they had eight people on the line, and I wanted to get Rinaldi one-on-one outside," Henzes said. "Unfortunately, Brandon wasn't ready to play. When John got hurt in the Honesdale game, Brandon's our No. 2 quarterback and we felt he's the guy to do the job.

"He realized it was my team now and I can get the job done. He's a talented young man. He had to get focused a little bit and started to have success. A pass here or there and it opens thing up."

It did against Western Wayne, where Buckley and Seamon each rushed for over 100 yards for the first time in the season.

"We were 100 percent that game and we said, 'here we go,' " Seamon said. "This is the season. This is how it should be.

"After Western Wayne, what we did, we knew we had to keep it rolling all season."

They did. Kujawski threw for over 100 yards and two scores in the regular-season finale against Riverside, and both star backs topped 100 yards rushing. In a four-week stretch leading up to the rematch with Old Forge, the backs amassed 1,165 yards.

And when Seamon blocked Old Forge's extra point in the third quarter, Dunmore had its revenge, a 7-6 win in the district final to propel them to the state playoffs.

Since then, the Bucks ran off 29 straight points in a 35-29 win over Southern Columbia, 27 unanswered points in a 34-12 victory over Bristol, and 27 consecutive points in Friday's 40-19 triumph over Bellwood-Antis in the state semifinals.

But it all started with a 56-point performance against Western Wayne.

"That was the game," Rinaldi said, "we really realized we were back on track."

Contact the writer: mmyers@timesshamrock.com On Twitter @mmtimes

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